The Tales of Cat Noir
by purr-ince
Summary: "...that was all it took to send a firebolt of pain straight through Adrien. He let out a choked moan, but managed to keep his lips sealed shut this time. "My message is this, Hawkmoth," the masked woman said, looking straight into the camera now, "Come as instructed and give us what we want. Every second you waste will be spent teaching your boy here new meanings of the word pain.
1. Chapter 1

Cat Noir gasped violently and tried to move out of the way as icy water splashed on him from above, effectively ripping him from unconsciousness. The cold pierced through his clothes to his skin, feeling sharp as knives as he struggled to orient himself. His breath came out in rapid pants, small white puffs of it visible in the air. He moved to get out of the freezing puddle of water he sat in, but found himself rendered immobile.

He looked down and jerked back in surprise at what he saw, immediately renewing his efforts to move. Grunting, he strained against the thick leather straps that held his limbs bound painfully tight to the arms and legs of a heavy metal chair, but he couldn't budge an inch. He couldn't even risk using _cataclysm_ if he wanted to. His hands were locked in place and even if he could move enough to try it, he might just wind up using it on himself by mistake. Where was he? How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was fighting a powerful akuma-corrupted woman with...

"Ladybug?" He called out, barely repressing the panic in his voice and blinking the water out of his eyes, but his question only echoed off hard walls of a large empty space. Cat Noir shook in the cold.

There was a sudden jarring clatter of hollow plastic on cement and he jerked toward the sound in surprise. There, in the too-dim light for the wide space they were in, a woman was standing next to an empty bucket that had been dropped carelessly on its side. "I'm sorry," she said, sauntering slowly closer to Cat Noir so that her features gradually became more visible. She cut a sharp, imposing silhouette through the weak light. "Did I wake you?" She stopped mere inches from him and looked down so that the light now illuminated pale green eyes behind an elegant sapphire-colored mask.

Cat Noir flinched involuntarily in recognition and his eyes widened. Images from before he'd gone unconscious, of Ladybug fallen and beaten at the woman's feet, rushed unbidden to the forefront of his mind. It was suddenly difficult to breath. His hands clenched the arms of his chair so tightly he could feel the rough texture of the metal through his gloves. "YOU," he hissed, his teeth chattering. "What did you do to Ladybug?"

"Oh! How precious!" The masked woman gushed, green eyes glittering behind her sapphire-colored mask, surprising Cat Noir, "You really care about that little partner of yours, don't you?"

Cat Noir felt his hackles rise at that and his eyes narrowed into slits. He didn't say anything, only glared back, silently fuming and straining against his bonds. It felt like someone had carved out his insides and replaced them with an ever growing dread. His reaction only seemed to amuse his captor, "My, my, aren't we excitable!" She clapped her hands delightedly, as if he had performed some great trick.

"I'll show you just how excitable I can be if you don't tell me where Ladybug is." Cat Noir told her, trying to hide just how fast his heart was racing.

The woman's eyes, which had been alight with delight before, seemed to crystallize into cold emeralds at his words. Cat Noir shivered, and it wasn't just because he was still drenched in cold water. "You're in no position to be making threats." She paused, then her smile reached her eyes again, "Remember, little kitten, curiosity killed the cat."

Cat Noir was seriously reconsidering the benefits of using _cataclysm_ when she paused and put a hand to her ear, and just then Cat Noir noticed the ear bud in her ear. She nodded, then turned to Cat Noir, letting out a self-suffering sigh, "Don't worry. The little insect is alive. You really should be more worried about yourself, you know."

At her words, Cat Noir sagged limply in his bonds and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The looming threat barely registered through the relief he felt. "ALIVE." He whispered. A reassurance. He hadn't been willing to admit it to himself, but he'd feared the worst.

His relief was cut short when a flash of pain erupted in his shoulder, making him hiss before he could stop himself. Cat Noir glared up at the masked woman who now held a short knife in her hand. Its tip was bright with his blood. "What was that for?" He asked, his shoulder stinging, small warm droplets of blood mingling with the cold dampness of his suit. She only stared coolly back at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I did say you should be more worried about yourself, did I not?" She casually shifted the knife to her other hand, looking a little rueful, "I apologize for the lack of warning, but I am on a schedule, and my boss is growing impatient. I brought you here for a reason, you know."

"Awe." Cat Noir feigned a hurt expression. "And here I was thinking you just wanted to spend some time with little old me."

The woman gave him a humoring smile. Right before she reached forward and wrenched his ring off. It happened too fast for him to react. Not that he could've done anything to stop her anyway, bound as he moment she had been standing there, arms folded, the next, she was wrenching the ring from his finger with cruel force. Immediately, he felt his transformation leaving him like blood leaving his body. He always felt weaker, less capable when he changed back to his civilian self, but now it felt like the effect was magnified tenfold. He felt naked and exposed without his mask to protect him now when he needed it most.

Adrien fought against his bonds with renewed energy born from desperation, the thick leather cutting into his skin without his suit. "That's not yours! Give it back!" he yelled. It had sounded much more threatening in his head.

Plagg appeared next to the woman, a fierce expression on his face, and dove at her hand holding the ring. The woman barely batted an eyelash though, and with a wave of her hand, something like a burst of white electricity struck Plagg in mid-air, sending him flying out of Adrien's line of sight. " _Plagg_!" Adrien shouted, trying to wrench himself free, but only succeeding in rubbing his skin raw where he was bound to the chair. "Plagg!" Adrien shouted again, but heard no response from his Kwami.

"Relax." the woman said, her voice infuriatingly calm. "He'll be fine. Those creatures are very resilient. They'd have to be. Although, they're not very strong separated from their miraculous holder, I'll admit. He'll be out cold for awhile."

Adrien wasn't listening. He was still shifting and straining to free himself. "That ring isn't yours." Adrien repeated, heart hammering loudly in his skull, "You can't do anything with it." He didn't know that, of course, but his mind was reeling and his thoughts had stopped making any sense. He'd say anything at this point.

The masked woman laughed, "That's cute, but don't worry, that's not why you're here today. I need the you without the mask for our special performance today. You see, we have an audience." As if to demonstrate, she put a hand to her ear and nodded. Adrien hadn't noticed the bud in her ear until just then. The masked woman smiled, apparently satisfied. Adrien only stared in fearful confusion. Putting away her phone, she raised her voice, as if projecting for a packed theater, "I see you've decided to join us, Hawkmoth. You'll want to pay attention to what happens next, because we'll be continuing in this vein until you give us what we want."

She turned to Adrien and smiled. Right before she gripped the handle of her knife like it was a stake and brought it straight down through his thigh. Adrien screamed, though it immediately grew strangled as he struggled to smother it. He couldn't help it. It felt like someone had driven a searing hot poker straight through his flesh. Burning pain radiated from the single spot through the rest of his body like heat from a furnace.

He sucked in unsteady gulps of air, trying to rein in his control. The masked woman slowly pulled her hand away from the blade, leaving it buried deep under his skin. "That…" Adrien hissed as a throb of pain interrupted him, "That was a little extreme. I mean…" Another steadying intake of air, "You haven't even told me what...what you want."

The masked woman sighed and gave him a sympathetic look. It made him sick to his stomach. "Oh, my sweet, unfortunately, you can't give us what we want. At least not directly. You're just a very useful playing piece."

Adrien felt more scared than he'd ever been in his life, but he managed to find his voice. "What...what do you mean?" It was getting more pointless to hide his fear, as he was sure it was obvious by now, but he tried anyway.

"Oh yes, did I forget to mention?" She asked flippantly, though it was clear from her expression she found this part enjoyable. She stepped around the chair so that she now stood behind Adrien and leaned forward so her face hovered just behind his shoulder. His skin crawled as she grabbed his head with both hands and turned it so that he faced his right. His eyes widened when he finally noticed a glowing red light in the darkness. "See little kitten. You're doing what you do best. Looking good for the camera."

Before he could think better of it, Adrien wrenched his head from her grasp, and slammed it back and toward his shoulder. He felt a small glimmer of satisfaction as the back of his head connected with what must've been her her face. He heard a muffled yelp and a curse from behind him. He then tried to throw himself and the chair sideways, but the pain in his leg took his breath away and he had to stop and it was all he could do to simply concentrate on breathing. He hadn't really had time to think this through. He'd just seized the moment. Faster than he was prepared to react, the masked woman sidestepped around the chair and backhanded him so powerfully his whole body rocked with the force of it. If he hadn't been tied to a chair, he would've been knocked out flat.

Adrien blinked furiously through the stars that suddenly clouded his vision. On the bright side, the pain in his head momentarily distracted him from his wounded leg. He kept his head still as possible, feeling like it might fall off his shoulders if he jostled it much effort turned out to be pointless, though, as the masked woman backhanded him again, this time in the other direction. "I didn't have to make this so easy on you, little kitten." the masked woman told him, her voice laced with a sinuous anger. "I've been very kind, all things considered."

Adrien swallowed, trying to focus through his dizziness. "Well, I'd hate to see what you'd call _unkind…_ "

"Oh, but you will. Unfortunately for you." the masked woman replied in syrupy tones. She gestured in the direction of the camera, "You see, before you so rudely interrupted, I was about to explain to our Mr. Hawkmoth what's at stake here." Adrien grimaced at the thought of someone bearing witness to this. He was glad Ladybug wasn't watching; though Hawkmoth was far from his first choice. The only thing that could've made this all worse was to know he was being used as leverage against her.

"I hate to break it to you, Lady, but Hawkmoth isn't exactly my biggest fan," Adrien said, grateful as the room began to stop spinning so much. He just needed to keep her talking. It seemed like she was less likely to stick something sharp in him while she was doing so, "You're wasting your time. You might as well let me go now."

"Poor kitten, always trying to act so brave. And so very ignorant. It'd almost be cute if it weren't so sad." Adrien tried to shrink away as the masked woman leaned in close, but of course he couldn't go anywhere. Adrien watched in horrified fascination as she gripped the hilt of the knife still in his leg. The area of his pants around the wound was stained with blood. It was a stupid thought. Adrien was vaguely grateful for the fact that the knife was still in there to stem the flow of blood, although every inch of him wished he could pull it out so it was stop feeling like his leg was splitting in two. Adrien couldn't help but think his dad would be furious if he could see what he'd let happen to the one of a kind piece of clothing. It was a strangely mundane thought for the dire situation he was in.

A small smile was all the warning Adrien got before the woman placed a single finger on the knife in Adrien's leg. The gesture was almost delicate.

It was pathetic, but that was all it took to send a firebolt of pain straight through Adrien. He let out a choked moan, but managed to keep his lips sealed shut this time. "My message is this, Hawkmoth," the masked woman said, looking straight into the camera now, "Come as instructed and give us what we want. Every second you waste will be spent teaching your boy here new meanings of the word _pain_."

As she spoke the last word, Adrien's whole world became sheer agony as she injected her strange electricity straight into him through the knife in her hand. His body seized like it had become one giant tightly clenched muscle. He couldn't think, couldn't hear, couldn't see. He could only ride out the massive wave of tortuous energy until finally, mercifully, it stopped.

Adrien heaved in shaking breaths, sweat leaving cool tracks down his face. Despite his release from pain, he felt anything but relieved. His whole body was tense and ready for another explosion of pain. He was ready to be sick all over his shirtfront as he sagged limply in his chair. He hadn't meant to look, but when he saw the wound on his leg he couldn't help but stare in horrified fascination. It looked as though whatever magical energy she'd sent through the blade, it had singed his pants and cauterized the wound around the blade. Well, at least he wouldn't bleed to death. Adrien wasn't so sure that wouldn't be the better option though.

"I'm very sorry you have to go through this," the woman said, the smile in her eyes belying her words. "But I must say you are the most useful hostage I've ever had the pleasure of using." Then she reached forward to brush Adrien's bedraggled hair out of his face.

He jerked away from her touch with a glare, meaning it as an act of defiance, but he was afraid it looked more like he was scared of her. It didn't help that that wasn't very far from the truth. "Then let me go," Adrien said, his voice raw and ragged, "I told you, you're wasting your time. I don't know why you think Hawk Moth would care what happens to me, but you're dead wrong. He's probably writing you a thank you letter as we speak."

She sighed pityingly like he was the idiot or something and shook her head, "Oh, sweet child, if only you knew." She paused, "Although, I'm certain you will soon enough. For now, I think we're due for another lesson." She smiled cheerfully, then sent another wave of electric energy through the knife, and all Adrien knew was pain.


	2. Chapter 2

Ladybug stirred slowly to wakefulness, her head feeling like someone had bashed it in with something a lot less merciful than a sledgehammer. Her thoughts were thick and sluggish, like one of her father's caramel recipes, and any attempt to stir them into something coherent only served to make her feel dizzy with the effort.

She groaned quietly as a wave of nausea overtook her and she spent a few horrible moments focusing on keeping the contents of her stomach from evacuating through her mouth. Careful not to move, she focused on breathing until finally, bit by bit, she started to feel a little better. Once she felt comfortable that she wouldn't hurl everywhere just by moving, she cracked her eyes open hesitantly.

Even the small light that greeted her was enough to send a stab of pain through her skull and she shut them immediately. Okay, that hadn't been a very great idea. Seeing as she didn't feel up to opening her eyes just yet, she focused again on trying to pull her thoughts together, however overwhelming the idea felt. She recalled hazily that she'd teased Cat Noir once about how much it must've hurt for him to think. She was sure she'd been joking then - although, it was hard to be sure, muddied as her brain was - but now she wished she could take it back, because she felt like she was being punished tenfold for making a crack like that.

She didn't realize it could actually _literally_ hurt to think until now.

 _Speaking of Cat Noir..._ her thoughts finally caught up with her. Had she seen him before she'd passed out? It was hard to remember anything specific. She pushed herself to try to remember what had happened to her to make her feel like she'd been on the losing side of a overzealous bar fight. Not that she'd ever been in a bar fight before to know what that felt like.

 _A fight!_ That was right. She'd been in a fight. With a woman in a blue mask that had called herself….'Pound?' 'Pain?' No, that wasn't right. 'Paon.' That's what she'd called herself. Ladybug had been the first on the scene. Thing's hadn't been very dire in the beginning. In fact, despite Cat Noir's absence, it had seemed like she might be able to wrap up this particular problem on her own. She'd been handling herself just fine against this new akuma-controlled woman until…? What had happened? She ground her teeth in frustration as her head throbbed.

Paon had attacked her out of nowhere with some horrible magical electricity or something. She hadn't used it at all against Ladybug until that moment, surprising her with its strength and ferocity. Ladybug had gone slack almost instantly and lost her grip on her Yo Yo string. She'd fallen then, Tikki screaming her name in her ear the whole way down.

She remembered barely feeling it when she hit the ground, even though the small remaining breath Paon's attack left in her lungs wooshed out of her. Luckily, the fall hadn't been very far, but Ladybug still hadn't been able to move, her body still in shock after the hit she'd taken. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she remembered hearing Cat Noir's worried voice calling out from somewhere far off.

Tikki's words in the next moment came back to Ladybug with sudden, horrifying clarity. "Ladybug! Ladybug! You need to get up! It's a trap! Oh god I'm so sorry! I should've seen this coming! Ladybug, please!" She barely had time to see a stilettoed foot swung right at her face before everything had gone dark.

Suddenly Ladybug heard a door open and close in front of her and opened her eyes without thinking. She regretted it immediately as she was hit by another stab of pain, but this time it was more bearable, and she kept her eyes open. She was sitting, strapped tightly to a large metal chair in a bare brick room with a single darkened window and a door. She couldn't see or feel her yo-yo anywhere. And she hadn't heard Tikki in her ear since she'd woken up. Despite her new company, Ladybug felt suddenly very alone. For the first time since she'd woken, Ladybug started to feel real panic, but the fear helped corral her thoughts at least.

An old, white-haired man had entered the room, dressed in a black designer suit and tie. He looked every inch like one of the crisp Wall Street businessmen Marinette had only seen in Hollywood films. "You're finally awake, I see." He said, his tone matching his outfit. He had a faint American accent to go with his Wall Street appearance.

"Who are you?" Ladybug asked, testing the leather straps that held her down. They were stronger than she thought she could break with brute force alone. "Where am I?

The man gave her a white-toothed, car salesman smile, "I'm your new boss. Or at least I will be shortly. And you're at our headquarters here in Paris"

"My...boss?" Ladybug echoed, still trying to reconcile her situation with the man's casual tone. This man had somehow managed to answer her questions and yet only made things more confusing. Her head gave a particularly painful throb.

"Your boss," he repeated, matter-of-factly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "Don't worry, though, I'm easy to get along with as long as you a have the right attitude."

Ladybug couldn't be sure, but she felt there was some dark threat behind those words in the way his voice grew low at the end. His face remained friendly though, and that in itself made her more nervous. "The right...attitude?" She was almost afraid to ask.

"That's an excellent question, Miss Ladybug," his eyes brightened, "One I'm happy to answer for you."

He pressed a button on a panel Ladybug hadn't noticed fixed on the gray brick wall, "Paon, we're ready for you." The name made Ladybugs blood run cold. She hadn't been certain what to expect when the man had greeted her in so friendly a way, but anything this Paon person was involved in couldn't be good.

"Oh! Yes sir!" Paon's cheerful reply came from an overhead speaker, startling Ladybug, "Am I coming through okay?"

"You certainly are." Mr. Wall Street replied. Then he pressed another button on the wall and a light must've come on on the other side because suddenly Ladybug could see through the window that had been dark before. What she saw made her heart stop.

Cat Noir was sitting slumped over and apparently passed out in a metal chair, restrained as she was. The chair had been placed in the middle of a large space on the hard cement, directly under a dull yellow light bulb. Like a prop on a stage under a spotlight. And like a proper audience member, her eyes were riveted to the spot. But instead of waiting in excited anticipation, Ladybug was willing the scene in front of her to disappear, hoping her eyes were deceiving her somehow.

"W-why is he here?" She asked in a breathless whisper. It felt like someone had her by the throat, her voice didn't want to work and it was hard to breath. Her stomach was twisted into painfully tight knots, making her dizzy and nauseous again.

"For your benefit of course," Mr. Wall Street said, still with that unnervingly pleasant expression, "You have a very close bond with him, I can tell. And that's always the best way to make this work."

"Make _what_ work?" Ladybug asked, not wanting to know the answer. Her mind was racing. She knew whatever his answer was, though, she didn't want to stick around to find out first hand. She had to somehow escape, get Cat Noir, and make it out of here. But how? Before Mr. Wall Street answered her, Ladybug saw Paon toss a full bucket of water over Cat Noir making him jerk and sputter awake, a fearful, confused look on his face.

She could hear Cat Noir's heavy breathes through the overhead speaker and see the way it misted around him. Ladybug could tell by the way he shivered and the way his breath shook that it was cold on the other side of the window. She watched as he struggled against his own bonds the way she had, then stop suddenly as something seemed to occur to him.

"Ladybug?" His voice sounded so scared and small through the speaker it made her chest contract painfully. She'd never heard him sound so vulnerable before.

"I'm right here, Chat!" Ladybug shouted loudly so that her voice would be picked up through whatever microphone Mr. Wall Street was using to communicate with Paon.

Mr. Wall Street smiled down at her patronizingly, "That's very sweet, Miss Ladybug, but I'm afraid only Paon can hear us through her earpiece. Soundproof walls and all. Wouldn't want to ruin the magic for your lover boy here."

Ladybug barely registered the 'lover boy' comment, her fear only mounting for her companion on the other side of the glass, her attention fixed on the predatory way Paon was looking at Cat Noir as she approached him.

" _You_ ," Cat Noir hissed, his voice suddenly sounding cold and alien even as Ladybug heard the tremor in it, "What did you do to Ladybug?" It felt like someone had Ladybug's insides in a vise. What was he doing? Stupid Chat was asking about her when he should be worried about himself. It was getting harder to breathe. "What do you want?" Ladybug asked voicelessly, unable to take her eyes off the horrible scene in front of her.

Instead of answering, Mr. Wall Street calmly reached other to turn off the audio and asked her a question. "Miss Ladybug, do you know why you were chosen to hold your Miraculous?" Ladybug's eyes furrowed in confusion and she turned briefly to glance at the man, taken off guard by the subject that had seemingly come out of left field.

She turned back to the glass and didn't answer. She'd never really been clear on that when she'd talked to Tikki. She knew they had a purpose - to fight and purify the akuma and protect innocent people - but she'd never really understood why. Even if she had known, she didn't feel like sharing with the creep who now held her and Cat Noir prisoner.

"It's okay if you don't know," Mr. Wall Street said, like a reassuring teacher to a struggling student, "Many of you don't. It's fairly normal. You see, it's something in who you are that the Kwami seek out. Your fortitude. Like a natural resistance to akuma, and the Kwami only help fortify that. It's quite fascinating really."

Ladybug was having trouble paying attention, still distracted as she was, but she caught the gist of what the man was saying. It still didn't do anything to make her less confused though. At the mention of Kawmi, though, Ladybug realized she hadn't heard a word from Tikki this whole time. She'd been so scared about everything else, she hadn't had time to worry about it, but now it unsettled her. She refused to let it show, though. Ladybug had no idea what the two on the other side of the glass were saying, but she didn't like the way the woman smiled down at Chat.

"There is of course more to it than that, but you get the idea." Mr. Wall Street continued, apparently unconcerned that Ladybug was only devoting a fraction of her attention to his words. "Luckily for me, no pun intended, I have a very special weapon against that internal resistance, and a gift for finding out just how to weaken it." He raised a leather-gloved hand that was glowing darkly with power and gave Ladybug a smile, "Tell me, Ladybug, have you ever wondered what happens when a miraculous gets corrupted?"

That got her full attention, and she turned away from the glass just in time for Mr. Wall Street to reach over and place his hand on her head. Immediately, her body went rigid as icy tendrils of power flowed down though his hand and down through her neck to her toes. Mr. Wall Street turned her head back to the window to her friend and pulled his hand away. There was still a small tendril of the dark, sickly power leading from his hand back to her head. If she wasn't sick before, she was now. "Paon," he said after giving Ladybug a satisfied smile, "Please begin."

Ladybug watched petrified as Paon stopped whatever it was she had been doing and placed a hand to her ear. She said something to Chat that made him sag in his chair, looking like he'd just been told the world wasn't ending after all. Ladybug had a feeling she knew why he looked like that. Stupid Chat. She wanted to reach forward and touch him. Shake him. Tell him to start thinking about his own safety for once, but she found she couldn't even strain against her bonds anymore. Whatever Mr. Wall Street's power was, she couldn't move a muscle because of it.

Mr. Wall Street reached forward to turn the audio back on just before Paon pulled a knife an swiped down at Cat Noir. "Chat!" Ladybug shrieked, trying to free herself from the power that held her trapped, but she didn't know how to begin to fight it. She saw Cat Noir's blood dripping down his shoulder and her stomach did somersaults. Her vision darkened around the edges, tunneling until all she could see was Cat Noir. All she could hear was the rapid beating of her heart in her ears, all other noise drowned out by the sound. He was trapped and alone and she couldn't do anything to help him. He was right in front of her and all she could do was watch as these monsters did whatever they wanted.

She was entirely unprepared for what she saw next.

"Don't!" she screamed when Paon grabbed Cat Noir's ring. In a flash of green light, that spread up from his feet to his face, Cat Noir changed. His sturdy suit replaced by achingly familiar blue pants. With horror, she realized she recognized that button up shirt taking place of his suit. When his face was revealed, his hair settling into a shape she knew all too well, his green eyes flashing with a fear she would pay with her life never to see, she felt something in her come unhinged. Time stopped.

It couldn't be. There was no way.

" _No…_ " Ladybug gasped.

 _Adrien._

Reality came crashing back into focus around her, and Ladybug fought harder than ever against her bonds, corporeal and incorporeal. She slammed every ounce of inner strength she had into it, drawing focus and determination she'd never been capable of before. She felt something loosening and her right hand started to tremble. She thought she heard a familiar voice calling her name, but she was to focused on compounding her victory and working her way out of her bonds that she didn't have the time to focus on it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the thin tendril of power leading from her to Mr. Wall Street waning, and she redoubled her efforts.

Mr. Wall Street's unflappable attitude was gone, replaced by a look of shock. Ladybug managed to turn her head enough to look at him and smile. Then she _leaned_ further against her bonds.

Unfortunately, Mr. Wall Street's shock was short lived, and his features contorted with anger and indignation. He clenched his hand into a fist and sent a bolt of his arctic dark power straight through the fraying thread of power and into Ladybug. She could only gasp and struggle to breath as any semblance of control she'd gained was ripped away from her. _No!_ She felt suddenly drained and weak, her vision blurry. The entire struggle couldn't have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt like she'd been doing backbreaking work for days in the hot son.

Mr. Wall Street turned Ladybug's head back to the glass roughly, though she felt that his hands shook slightly. He pulled a phone from his hand, typing something furiously, and Ladybug watched, still trying to take in air as Paon pulled out her own phone to read whatever he'd sent.

"Now watch closely, little bug," Mr. Wall Street said in her ear, his pleasant tone replaced by a cold, goading one.

Ladybug couldn't struggle any longer as she watched Paon take her knife again and bring it crashing down toward an equally helpless Adrien. " _Adrien!"_ Ladybug screamed, long past caring that she was revealing her weakness to her captor. Adrien's scream churned her insides. She couldn't hold back her nausea anymore and heaved, Mr. Wall Street turning her head again and holding her hair so she didn't throw up all over herself. It made her even more sick and she heaved again, gagging pathetically.

"Please," she begged, her voice hoarse and tears falling treacherously from her eyes, "Please just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you. Take my miraculous. Anything you want. Please. Just stop hurting him."

Mr. Wall Street's smile did return then, and he gave Ladybug a commiserating pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Miss Ladybug," he told her, "You're already well on your way to giving us exactly what we want."

 _AN:_ _Hello! First of all thank you so so much to anyone whose read this, and thank you for the favorites/follows, they mean the world to me. And ESPECIALLY thank you for all your lovely reviews, they absolutely are the best thing in the world and I really appreciate it that you took the time to leave your kind words._

 _I'm sorry this took so long, I was hoping to update this more regularly, but have been getting distracted. Also, had to rewrite a lot of parts to this and I'm still not sure I'm happy with how it came out, but I think if I keep trying to fix things, I'm not sure I'd finish before we all died of old age._

(also if anyone has any constructive critiques or anything I'm all ears. Like I said this is pretty much plotted out already, but any writing style/grammar/characterization/etc critiques would be happily accepted. Ladybug is so difficult for me to write for some reason.)


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